Comparison of Pen and Keyboard Transcription Modes in Children with and without Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Fourth graders with learning disabilities in transcription (handwriting and spelling), LD-TD, and without LD-TD (non-LD), were compared on three writing tasks (letters, sentences, and essays), which differed by level of language, when writing by pen and by keyboard. The two groups did not differ significantly in Verbal IQ but did in handwriting, spelling, and composing achievement. Although LD-TD and non-LD groups did not differ in total time for producing letters by pen or keyboard, both groups took longer to compose sentences and essays by keyboard than by pen. Students in both groups tended to show the same pattern of results for amount written as a larger sample of typically developing fourth graders who composed longer essays by pen. Results for that sample, which also included typically developing second and sixth graders, showed that effects of transcription mode vary with level of language and within level of language by grade level for letters and sentences. However, consistently from second to fourth to sixth grade, children wrote longer essays with faster word production rate by pen than by keyboard. In addition, fourth and sixth graders wrote more complete sentences when writing by pen than by keyboard, and this relative advantage for sentence composing in text was not affected by spelling ability. Implications of the results for using computers for accommodations or specialized instruction for students with LD-TD are discussed.

Differences between good and poor child writers on fMRI contrasts for writing newly taught and highly practiced letter forms

“…Adults learn novel characters better by writing them by pen than by keyboard (Longcamp et al, 2008). A similar advantage of pen over keyboard was observed in developing writers in grades 2, 4, and 6 who wrote longer essays, wrote words faster, wrote more complete sentences (Berninger, Abbott, Augsburger, & Garcia, 2009a), and expressed more ideas (Hayes & Berninger, 2009) when writing by pen than by keyboard. In addition, handwriting training led to better letter recognition than keyboard training in older preschool children (Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou, & Velay, 2005).…”

Fluency and Accuracy in Alphabet Writing by Keyboarding: A Cross-Sectional Study in Spanish-Speaking Children With and Without Learning Disabilities

“…Other researchers, such as Connelly, Gee, and Walsh (2007) demonstrated that children write more and faster by pen than by keyboard, probably because of practice and experiences in writing by pen. This was also the case for children with transcription disabilities (Berninger et al, 2009). Because this study focused exclusively on alphabet typing, no conclusions can be drawn for sentence or text writing on a keyboard.…”

“…Orthographic motor integration in keyboard mode was even more related to the quality and length of text composition (r = .54 and r = .55, respectively) than in the handwriting mode (r = .44 and r = .30, respectively). Berninger et al (2009) found that elementary school students wrote more letters of the alphabet in 15 s by keyboard than by pen (Grade 2: η 2 p = .18; Grade 4: η 2 p = .42; Grade 6: η 2 p = .72). This positive effect of keyboard use when writing the alphabet was also found for first graders by Berninger et al (2006), but no effect sizes were reported.…”

Eskuz idaztearen hil-kanpaiak?

“…Bestalde, adinari dagokionez, teklatuaren onurak nerabezarotik aurrera etorriko lirateke, 11 urte ingurutik aurrera, zehazki. Izan ere, garai horretan gertatuko litzateke bi eskuen koordinazio eraginkorrerako beharrezkoa den burmuineko bide neuralen garapena (Berninger et al, 2009). …”